The present invention relates to the field of micro and nanofluidices. For example, the methods and devices of the present invention can be used to manufacture microfluidic features, specifically in manufacturing microchannels and nanochannels in plastic substrates.
Interest has been growing in the fabrication of microfluidic devices. Typically, advances in the semiconductor manufacturing arts have been translated to the fabrication of micromechanical structures, e.g., micropumps, microvalves and the like, and microfluidic devices including miniature chambers and flow passages.
There are several techniques that have been developed to fabricate microfluidic channels on materials such as, for example, silicon, glass, quartz, polymeric films, silicon carbide and thermoplastic. Techniques such as, for example, chemical wet etch, chemical etch, laser cutting, laminate laser cutting, micromolding, photopolymerization, hot embossing and injection molding are current methods of fabricating fluidic features, however, have feature size limitations, cost issues and may not be appropriate to be used on plastic materials when fabricating features, such as channels, at the smaller size ranges described in this application. In order to fabricate nanochannels, for example, the semiconductor industry has utilized the conventional electron-beam lithography process which is relatively expensive and inherently slow. There is a need to develop a simple method to manufacture microchannels at the lower scale and nanochannels on plastic substrates at a lower cost and at a higher throughput.